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Tuesday, May 17, 2011

To Tell The Truth

As part of the Versatile Slattern Blogger award, I was supposed to tell you 7 random facts about myself. OK, I am just now getting around to it.

1.  I am old enough to have watched the original To Tell the Truth on TV. (I hear in my head "a Goodson-Todman production!")  With Bud Collyer as host and, often, Kitty Carlisle as panelist.

2.  I always think Kitty Carlisle was once Miss America. Am I confusing her with a panelist on another game show? Kitty Carlisle was married to Moss Hart.

3. I played Alice in You Can't Take It With You, by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, in the Steppenwolf production of this play in Chicago.

4. Alice is the "normal" member of a wacky family.  I am the wacky member of my Normal family.

5.  Dove soap is 1/4 moisturizing cream! (I think they used to say "one quarter cleansing cream" on television commercials during To Tell the Truth.  My mother told me that once Kitty Carlisle, doing the live lead-in to the commercial, pronounced it "dove" with a long "o," so it was about the past tense of "dive" instead of the bar soap with the bird of peace as part of its logo, but the past tense of "dive" as "dove" is also a bit apocryphal and was earlier, and more correctly, "dived," though "dove" is now in common use and perfectly acceptable. That's what happens to language. It wears down, like a bar of soap.)

6.  "Will the real Justin Evans please stand up?"  To Tell the Truth is a game show in which three people answer questions about the identity of one real person, who is there, the other two being imposters. The celebrity panelists, usually including Kitty Carlisle, try to figure out which one is the real bar of soap. At the end, Bud Collyer asks, "Will the real so-and-so please stand up?"  (But he never called anyone a so-and-so.)

After reading all about the poet Justin Evans in some recent poet blog entries, I stumbled on Justin Evans in the blog of Margaret Evans Porter (via Julie Kistler's theatre blog); she was claiming him as her cousin and the author of White Devil. When I checked Amazon, I found yet another Justin Evans (Justin Wayne Evans), who has written a book of poems called Moonlit Memories.

They can all stand up, and Kitty Carlisle can, too!

(Not really. She died in 2007.)

7.  I love random coincidii. But you already knew that. For example, Kitty Carlisle was in the opera The Rape of Lucretia, by Benjamin Britten, mentioned in yesterday's blog entry.

Who gnu? Not me, until I went on one of those infinity loops in the Internet. Now all that's left of me is a little sliver in danger of getting stuck in the drain.

14 comments:

  1. I'm old enough to have watched the original To Tell the Truth too, and I have to say that the only thing I remember Kitty Carlisle for is her being on it. Am I remembering wrong, or didn't she always dress up as if she was off to a glamorous dinner afterwards?

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  2. Thank you, Hannah! Seana, yes, I think she was the glamorous one! And doesn't Saturday Night Live, or some comedy show, make fun of that now?

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  3. Kathleen:

    Justin Evans, here, standing up finally. Well, one of them---we have a club on Facebook.

    I am pleased you have enjoyed the interview Kristin and I did. I really had a lot of fun answering her questions, and she gifted me with an amazing review. I will be adding your blog to my roll if that is okay with you.

    By the way, I played Tony in a production of You Can't Take it With You, when I first got out of the Army, back in 1992. Truth be told I really wanted to play Ed, that xylophone playin' pimp daddy.

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  4. Justin, you warm my heart with your presence here and this marvelous random coincidence! I have been reading and enjoying Hobble Creek Review! Thank you for the blogroll thingey! (I should do that back! So people can find the "real" Justin Evans! Really, you have a Facebook club?!)

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  5. Kathleen:

    I am pleased you are enjoying HCR. We are (well, I am) gearing up for another issue in July.

    Yes, there is a Facebook club. Apparently, Justin Evans is a very common name. Some time ago I was invited to join. On occasion the admin posts something, but that's all the club really is.

    By my own encounter, there is the author of White Devil, the author of A Good and Happy Child, Justin Evans the photographer, and Justin Evans the retired professional soccer player. Those are the more common ones.

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  6. Probably I went to school with a Justin Evans....

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  7. Oh, that explains the Eminem song/rap/whatever.

    "Will the real Slim Shady please stand up?"

    Word verification: snity

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  8. I am old enough to confuse "To Tell the Truth" with "I've Got a Secret" and "What's My Line?" Any chance the Miss America was Bess Myerson?

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  9. Bess Myerson! Likewise, on confusing the shows!

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  10. I'm over a year late responding to this...via a Google search of reviews of my books (go figure.)
    I do claim Justin Evans the novelist as my cousin, and what's more, he claims me as well. Happy to find your blog and will often return! Cheers!

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  11. How lovely to hear from you! I hope you and your cousin, and all the Justin Evanses are well!!

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  12. I love your blogs I remember watching What's My Line at age 9 in 1965, paul edelstein artist in memphis

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